Ionic liquids are gaining substantial interest as alternative reaction media. Despite the overwhelming amount of evidence suggesting a relationship between their structure and melting point, there still remains the problem of selectively choosing a particular ionic pair that will produce a liquid at room temperature. Ionic liquids based on 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium halides have been investigated using ab initio calculations utilizing Gaussian 98 and the 6-31G* and 6-31+G* basis sets. The calculated interaction energy was found to increase in magnitude with decreasing alkyl chain length at the Hartree−Fock level, although no trend was found to exist with increasing anionic radius. Correlations between melting point and interaction energy were investigated. Linear trends were found to exist in the 1-n-butyl-3-methylimidazolium (Bmim) halide series as well as the 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium iodide series.

A well-established provision for mass-casualty decontamination that incorporates the use of mobile showering units has been developed in the UK. The effectiveness of such decontamination procedures will be critical in minimizing or preventing the contamination of emergency responders and hospital infrastructure. The purpose of this study was to evaluate three empirical strategies designed to optimize existing decontamination procedures: (1) instructions in the form of a pictorial aid prior to decontamination; (2) provision of a washcloth within the showering facility; and (3) an extended showering period. The study was a three-factor, between-participants (or “independent”) design with 90 volunteers. The three factors each had two levels: use of washcloths (washcloth/no washcloth), washing instructions (instructions/no instructions), and shower cycle duration (three minutes/six minutes). The effectiveness of these strategies was quantified by whole-body fluorescence imaging following application of a red fluorophore to multiple, discrete areas of the skin. All five showering procedures were relatively effective in removing the fluorophore “contaminant”, but the use of a cloth (in the absence of instructions) led to a significant (∼20%) improvement in the effectiveness of decontamination over the standard protocol (p <0.05). Current mass-casualty decontamination effectiveness, especially in children, can be optimized by the provision of a washcloth. This simple but effective approach indicates the value of performing controlled volunteer trials for optimizing existing decontamination procedures.

Using the solvatochromic indicator method, a scale of solvent hydrogen‐bond basicity, β1 (General), has been set up using a series of double regression equations, for 11 aniline‐type indicators. A similar solvent scale, β1 (Special), has been constructed by the homomorphic comparison method using only results by Laurence et al. on the indicators 4‐nitroaniline and 4‐nitro‐N,N‐dimethylaniline. Results are available from our previous work on a general solute scale, β 2H, and we have also obtained a special solute scale, β2 (pKHB) from available log K values for hydrogen‐bond complexation of bases with 4‐fluorophenol in CCl4. However, the two solute β2 scales are virtually identical. It is shown that there is a general connection between β1(General) and β 2H, with r = 0·9775 and s.d. = 0·05 for 32 compounds, and between β1(Special) and β 2H, with r = 0·9776 and s.d. = 0·06 for the same 32 compounds. The latter correlation over 60 compounds yields r = 0·9684 and s.d. = 0·07. However, there are so many compounds in these regressions for which the differences in the solvent and solute β values are larger than the total expected error of 0·07 units that the use of β1 to predict β2 or vice versa is a very hazardous procedure. About 70 new β1 values obtained by the double regression method are also reported.

Lithium (trimethylsilyl)chalcogenolates have been generated and used to prepare a series of alk-2-ynyl trimethylsilyl chalcogenoethers from the corresponding propargyl bromides in good yield. The thermal decomposition of the telluroethers has also been studied.

Ordered mesoporous silicate materials, such as MCM-41 and SBA-15, offer a nanometre-sized environment for the inclusion of quantum-confined materials. The channel walls of the framework hinder cluster-cluster interactions thereby restricting particle growth and thus limiting the size of the enclosed particles to the nanometre-size regime. In particular, the past decade has seen substantial progress in the synthesis and encapsulation of II-VI nanoparticles within MCM-41 and SBA-15. This microreview highlights the recent developments in this area, with notable emphasis on the synthetic